It’s a long way from early childhood in the Dominican Republic to receiving the United Federation of Teacher\'s Outstanding Career and Technical Education Award in New York City. Then again, there are only so many Claudio Garcias. Garcia moved to NYC when he was 9, and after studying Graphic Arts during his teenage years, Garcia polished his knowledge of Fine Arts and Art History at Boston College.

You’d think a teacher’s assistant with 15 years of experience in the Marine Corps might be a strict classroom disciplinarian. And while Commack, Long Island’s Frank Giampietro certainly keeps his students focused and on-task, structure has simply been in the Graduate School of Education graduate’s lineage since watching his father work long hours and mother raise a family.

If Brooklyn resident/Poughkeepsie native John Sardo has his say, math will soon be viewed as less inscrutable and formulaic, and some of its best minds will come back from other fields to teach its fundamentals in the classroom. Sardo, who completed his undergrad studies at SUNY New Paltz and teaches middle school in West Harlem, recently enrolled at Touro to achieve his Masters in Mathematics Education. Apart from additional certification, you might ask why the 35-year-old would pursue further academia when he’d already developed a steady career track.

It would be easy to assume that Dafna Ben-Anath’s pursuit of helping others learn English originated after immigrating to Rego Park, NY from Tel Aviv, Israel when she was eight. While she remembers that adaptation process as being “sink or swim,” Ben-Anath actually acclimated to her American surroundings reasonably well.

It’s no secret that child-education resources, particularly in urban areas, are often wanting. But thousands of students also lack the intangible support of someone to instill confidence. Recent GSE Teaching Literacy graduate Michael Timar has dedicated his graduate studies and working life to providing that direction for students at John V. Lindsay Wildcat Academy Charter School, which takes in young people who’ve dropped out of or otherwise failed to succeed at public institutions (whether for behavioral or academic reasons).

Nowadays, a huge number of math enthusiasts with teaching degrees ultimately put their skills to use in trades like engineering or corporate management. Both paths are understandable. They provide a certain amount of fiscal comfort and presumed longevity. But if all our algebra and calculus experts are applying their knowledge in peripherally related fields, there’ll be fewer qualified individuals teaching basic sequential knowhow to the next generation of students.

There’s an expression about converting lemons into lemonade, but what it really boils down to is seeing opportunities in obstacles and transforming challenges into irredeemable rewards. Graduate School of Education Class of 2013 Special Education and Teaching alum Tina Feingold can relate to that. A few years ago, after nearly 25 years of instructing preschoolers at the Central Queens YM-YWHA, new administrative management arrived with an ultimatum: earn your Master’s or seek employment elsewhere.

Plans, like promises, are often bound to be broken. When Graduate School of Education (GSE) student Roger Von Braun graduated from Stony Brook with his bachelor’s degree, his intention was to segue into law school. “I took the LSATs and everything else,” he remembers. “And then when I got my first acceptance letter to law school, I felt like I was going to throw up, so I realized that probably wasn’t the best path for me to take.”